


The Gift

by thecolourclear (afinch)



Category: The West Wing
Genre: Brotherly Love, Gen, Season/Series 02
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-06-14
Updated: 2006-06-14
Packaged: 2018-11-06 23:00:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11046123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afinch/pseuds/thecolourclear
Summary: The story of Toby's red ball.





	The Gift

_i._  
Well, he was one of sixteen – seventeen – people, wasn't he just so fucking special. He threw his red ball at the wall and caught it, pausing to look at it briefly. From David. He shook his head and threw it, again pausing to look at it. 

"You gave me a ball for Christmas," Toby had said over the phone to his younger brother. "A reddish bouncing ball."

"Well, it's pink." 

"David, if you gave me a bouncing ball, it's going to be red, ok? Now, stop laughing at me and tell me why in the name of all things holy you gave me a ball for Christmas."

David laughed, "Because you don't have any." 

"Now, that's just not funny," Toby snapped, hanging up the phone. He was irritable – Christmas always made him irritable. Never mind that he was actually Jewish – why couldn't the damn world just get along? And if the world couldn't, could the Israelis and the Palestinians and Christians at least try? Just to not make Toby's life hell?

Now it wasn't Israelis and Palestinians and Christians making his life hell, it was the goddamned President. His goddamned boss had just screwed him over. The boss he'd gotten elected. These demons certainly had shouted down the better angels for sure.

 _ii._  
"Toby, we haven't spoken in a while, don't hang up." It was David, calling after he'd landed, while Josh was still in surgery. 

"Josh almost died." 

David didn't say anything, just bit his lip and let the silence hang for a moment. "So did I," he said, gently placing the phone back in the cradle.

 _iii._  
Toby let out a growl as he threw the ball. If only he'd called his brother back, apologized, told him how worried he really was. Gotten Josh on the phone to back him up, anything. But the doctors were busy trying not to let Josh die, so calling back had been out of the question. He looked at the ball this time and picked up the phone.

"Tell me," he said softly once David had picked up. "Why a goddamned red ball?"

"I can't do this right now." 

"Neither can I. Why a red ball?"

"Toby?" He knows his brother better than his brother thinks he does. "Toby, what happened?"

"Not now, David. I just … not now. You'll know later. When you see it on the news." 

"I'd be extremely worried about that, but when are you not in the news," David laughed nervously. 

"No, this'll …" Toby trailed off and rubbed his head, throwing the ball and sighing when it angled off a foot away from him.

"That bad?" David said softly. "Sounds like you're using the ball though." 

"Why did you give me a red ball two Christmases ago? No shitting David, I need to know. Just this once, I need a straight answer." 

David doesn't doubt it, the way Toby's voice is strained – almost like he was trying not to break down. "I was cleaning out mom's garage and found it tucked inside a box. Didn't know where it came from or whose it was. None of our sisters could remember it, so I was hoping you could. Guess it's nobody's then. Tell you what, you can trade it for a real gift if you'd like." 

"I'm getting some use out of it here," Toby sighed. "I think I'll keep it." 

"That bad?"

"Well, the President just fucked himself and everyone else over, so yeah, it's a bit bad." Realising he just snapped at David, he rubbed his head. "I'm sorry. For … everything. I forgot you were up there, I'm sorry." 

"You have never, not once, apologized to me for anything," David said softly. "Toby? You're not in some sort of trouble are you? Toby, please. I'll be in California for seven months training. Anne's pissed, which I know makes you happy, but Toby, please. Do you need me?"

 _iv._  
When the story finally broke and all hell descended upon the White House, David would watch CNN from his apartment in California and smile fondly at a picture of the two brothers, Toby holding the small pink ball that they'd found on the walk home from school. The picture had been taken on a whim, but that day, walking home with his brother … it was one of the first memories David had of his brother. He'd asked his brother if he loved him on that walk home and Toby had tossed the ball up in the air and caught it before grinning at David, "Always have, squirt, and always will." 

Toby sighed reading the paper about NASA training in Southern California and the cries that the NASA programme should be shut down. Everything was hell, he decided, hurtling the ball at the wall and catching. Everything in the whole goddamned world. Except, perhaps, the little brother that had asked the right question weeks ago and let his older brother, for the only time David could remember, cry.


End file.
